A unified communications (UC) system generally refers to a system that provides users with an integration of communication services. Users typically connect to the UC system through a single client to access the integrated communications services. The integrated communications services may include real-time services, such as instant messaging (IM), presence notifications, telephony, and video conferencing, as well as non real-time services, such as email, SMS, fax and voicemail.
Organizations, such as corporations, businesses, educational institutions, and government entities, often employ UC systems to enable internal communication among its members in a uniform and generally cost-efficient manner. In addition, organizations may employ UC systems for communicating with trusted external entities.
Currently, a number of third-party developers offer various UC applications for implementing UC systems. The various applications include MICROSOFT® LYNC® (previously Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS)), IBM® SAMETIME® (ST), GOOGLE APPS®, and CISCO JABBER®. Because there is no industry standard regarding UC systems, issues of incompatibility arise when users from one UC system need to communicate with users from a different UC system.
Users of UC systems may wish to use an automated platform that includes automated applications (herein referred to as bots) to perform automated tasks on their behalf. These bots are able to perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, but at a much higher rate than that would be possible for a human.
A prior art method of implementing a bot application involves using a UC managed application programming interface (API). The bot is provisioned as a user on the UC server. Thus, different UC systems have to implement their own bot applications. In one case, a corporation or business that employs a different UC system may desire to implement the same bot application to carry out similar tasks. However this is typically impossible due to incompatibilities between the two UC systems.